Windows and Tablets – Oil & Water or Perfect Mix?

Posted on August 2, 2014 in Thoughts

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My Take on Windows and Tablets:

Basic – Windows RT

ARM processor based tablet with long battery life and instant on feature.  Can’t install desktop applications but can install applications from the Microsoft Store. Great for light gaming, browsing, Microsoft Office (with Outlook in 8.1) email, Remote Desktop and entertainment.

Standard – Windows 8 Tablet

ATOM type processor with decent battery life and instant on feature (Using Hibernate).  Can install light desktop applications as well as applications from the Microsoft Store. Great for gaming, browsing, Microsoft Office (with Outlook in 8.1), email, Remote Desktop, entertainment, line of business applications.  With updates in Windows 8.1, users can now customize the experience to be mainly desktop based.  This includes booting to the desktop where applications can be pinned to the task-bar or have shortcuts on the desktop.  The interface is very similar to Windows 7.

Professional – Windows 8 Pro Tablet

Similar to standard tablets, professional tablets have x86 processor with decent battery life and instant on feature (Using Hibernate).  Can install full desktop applications as well as applications from the Microsoft Store. Great for gaming, browsing, Microsoft Office (with Outlook in 8.1), email, Remote Desktop, entertainment, line of business applications.  With updates in Windows 8.1, users can now customize the experience to be mainly desktop based.  This includes booting to the desktop where applications can be pinned to the task-bar or have shortcuts on the desktop.  The interface is very similar to Windows 7.

Now that Microsoft is providing Windows for free to be used on Tablets under 9″, we are seeing a number of low cost Windows tablets coming to market.  In conclusion, users wanting a tablet as a secondary device for email and internet, either an RT or standard Windows tablet would be fine.  Business users who are looking for a laptop replacement should look at a professional grade tablet with an AMD A series or Intel Core processor.  Personally, I use a Microsoft Surface Pro 3, Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM and 256GB Drive.  I highly recommend it as a desktop / laptop replacement.

Microsoft Surface Pro 3

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